The River in the 'Verse
by marylaveen
Summary: Two children caught by power hungry people, tested, trained, taught and tortured. Fighting for life in two universes connected only by a tear in the veil between them. Their minds and spirits reach out in desperation and find each other, and a burst of accidental magic binds them together giving them the help they need to survive.


**Soul Ties**

Two children, one boy one girl, cried out in anguish, their very souls felt so alone. One, the girl was born with a mind that was so quick and so powerful, that had she been left alone she could have remade the universe, ended the hunger of the universe and saved all her people. But her mind was so great that it caught the attention of the corrupt government that ruled the system of planets.

She was the second child her parents had, and her older brother Simon was her best friend and her greatest hero. He was a bright young man, who in any other family would have been considered a prodigy child. But he never minded the attention on his sister, he loved her more than anything in the universe.

When she was fourteen she was offered a place at a prodigious government funded school. Her parents weren't sure, they could afford to send her anywhere, but it seemed to offer the best programs so she insisted. In many coming weeks and years she wished she hadn't.

Once she was at the academy she learned what a mistake it had been. They started right off by cutting into her brain, trying to understand what made her tick.

The boy was an only child. His parents were killed by the leader of a terrorist organization when he was a year and a half old. They were killed because of the betrayal of a close friend. He was placed with his mothers sister and her husband. They hated him. They hated him for his power. And he had power.

He was from a race of people who were gifted with the ability to manipulate the laws of physics according to their wills. But he was more than that. With his power, when he was fully grown and trained his power was enough to destroy world and remake them in the blink of an eye.

When he turned eleven he was brought back to the world he was born to. He went to a school for those with gifts like his. There he made two friends, a boy and a girl who he loved with all his heart, for he had never had anything to love before. The year passed and he ended up facing the man who had killed his parents. He forced the terrorist once again to retreat and was sent back to a family who starved him, and beat him and belittled him for living.

His second year at the school one of his talents, a true gift that if they had actually understood there own magic they would have revered, was discovered. An entire school of children turned on him and the teachers did nothing to help. His friends stood with him, and two of his friends brothers but that was it. Despite not having support he still destroyed a beast of over a thousand years, nearly dying in the process, and once again facing the man who orphaned him and saving more than one life.

After having nearly died again he was once again sent back to his aunt and uncle who hated him. He didn't stay the whole summer, his uncles sister came by and he lost control of his temper blowing her up like a balloon. That year at school he learned of his godfather who was blamed for betraying his parents, and met the true betrayer. But his godfather had to run. And once again he had to go back to his aunt and uncles home.

His fourth year, when he was fourteen everything changed. He was entered into a tournament, and for the first time one of his friends turned on him. But this time he had his godfather. Sirius Black couldn't be there in person, but he wrote to him, and let him know he loved him. And that was more than the boy had ever had before. When the final task fo the tournament came the boy and one of the other competitors was kidnapped. The other competitor was killed and boy was used in a dark ritual to strengthen his enemy. He barely managed to escape, bringing the corpse of Cedric, the other competitor back with him.

At the end of the tournament the boys headmaster offered to train him. That the boy would go back to his aunt and uncle's for a few weeks but once the protection was in place for the year he would come back to Hogwarts, his school, and the headmaster, and others he chose would train him, if he was committed. He got the boy to swear a magical oath to commit to his training, which he did cheerfully, having no idea what was coming.

When he was picked up to start training he learned. They did teach him, of that he was certain, but when he got things wrong they punished him in ways even his uncle wouldn't have imagined, ways he didn't think Voldemort would even imagine. And when they trained him to fight they did not hold back, using spells in ways he would never imagine.

And he couldn't contact anyone about it. Between the oath he swore and the close eye they kept on him he couldn't tell anyone.

He lasted three weeks before something within him was laying in the bed they had given him and crying.

Unknown to him a girl a universe away, just his age, and his equal, if her gift was intelligence and his magic (though she had more than a touch of magic and he a good helping of intelligence) broke as well, and lay in the bed they had given her and cried.

Both slipped into a deep sleep at the same time and when they next opened their eyes they opened them into a field of green grass dotted with wildflowers with a wild blue sky overhead. It was a valley, surrounded by high purple mountains capped in snow and lined with deep green forests. A small river, just larger than a stream ran through the valley.

When the boy opened his eyes he saw a girl lying in grass next to him completely naked and looking at him with wide eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked. Her voice sounded American, and she looked it, mostly white, though it looked as if she had some ancestry from Asia. Her eyes were wide and large and long dark hair flowing down her back.

"Harry Potter," he said. His voice sounded strange to his own ears. Soft and calm and far to relaxed. "And you?"

"River Tam." Her eyes roved his body and he realized he too was naked. He felt a flash of embarrassment, but there was something about her that felt like he could trust her.

"Who are you River Tam?" he asked, "And for that matter, where are we?"

"I'm the daughter of one of the top Alliance judges in the 'verse. And I think this is my mind. I think they drove me crazy this is my way of coping."

"Alliance," Harry muttered.

"So, that makes you a figment of my imagination devised to help me cope. So what story did I create for you Harry Potter? Who are you?"

"I am a wizard from the planet earth. And I am being trained to be the perfect warrior and general. And if this a delusion, I'm pretty sure it's mine, and you are the construct, after all I have magic, and from what I've learned of mind magic it's quite possible to create a semi-sentient person in my head to help me cope."

.They were both quiet for a few minutes before River asked, "How old did I make you Harry?"

"I am 14, but not cause you made me that way." They were quiet again for a minute before Harry said, "And you River?"

"Also fourteen."

After yet another few minutes of them both listening to the river in the valley River said, "So one of us is a construct of the other, designed to help us cope with the fact that someone is trying to break both of us and mold us each into the perfect weapon. We are both fourteen and something is very wrong with both of us, because we should be freaking out about this, and both of us are calm instead."

"That sums it up pretty well," Harry said.

Neither of them spoke for what felt like hours, just lay there side by side in the grass naked as the day they were born.

Then it became too much once again and River began to cry.

"You will still be here in the morning right Harry?" she asked.

"The morning?"

"When they poke at me with the needles, and come at me with knives. When they try to make me dance and dance and kill and kill?"

"Yeah," he leaned over and grabbed her hand and looked her in the eyes. "If there is any way, anything in my power I'll be there."

"Thank you," her voice broke and the tears continued to pour down her face. He sat up and pulled her into his arms. He had never really held a girl before, let alone a naked girl and he could feel his body responding, but that was a passing thought. His entire focus was on holding her as she fell apart in his arms, tears pouring off her face and down his chest, making him feel slightly itchy as her hair ran over his arm.

When she did finally calm down she looked up at him. "Harry, I'll be there for you too you know. Tomorrow, when they come to train you, to do whatever they do that made you break inside. I'll be there."

It was Harry's turn to break down. He still held River in his arms, and he bent himself over her as he cried and she patted his hair and back to help him calm down.

"Thank you," he finally choked out.

"We figments of imagination have to stick together after all," River said. Harry burst out laughing.

"Together." He agreed.

Neither they nor anyone else noticed, but in the waking world an aura of gold surrounded both their bodies, invisible to monitoring spells and to cameras, but if any naked eye had seen it would have seemed as if either one of them was encased in a pure god cocoon, for just a minute then they went back to normal, but from that moment their very souls were tied. In some circles, where the ancient principles of magic were still recognized they would be seen as married, soul-bonded. But no one noticed, and so neither had to deal with their tormentors asking questions they wouldn't have been able to answer.

What was apparent from that day forward, at least to the two of them, were their minds were tied. When they desperately needed to they could reach out and speak to one another.

**AN: New story, should be a pretty short one. It will be updated sporadically, like all my stories are. I love the idea of a River/Harry and have yet to find one to my satisfaction.**


End file.
